29 August 2011

Make Your Own Soil

Have you heard the term permaculture? It is a mix between permanent and agriculture, and refers to sustainable land use through patterns that occur in nature. The idea behind permaculture is to achieve maximum effect with minimum wasted energy.

In other words, permaculture aims to borrow from nature and apply to everyday life to create stable, productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its inhabitants. As Wikipedia puts it:

Within a Permaculture system, work is minimised, "wastes" become resources, productivity and yields increase, and environments are restored. Permaculture principles can be applied to any environment, at any scale from dense urban settlements to individual homes, from farms to entire regions.

The philosophy of permaculture was developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s. Their intent was to build self-sufficient settlements that would reduce the dependence on global industry. Permacullture has developed a wide international followship and one of its most prominent advocates, Geoff Lawton, reveals in the following video two shockingly obvious places where nature quietly makes soil.

It does sound surprising but yes, you can assist nature in making soil. Before you head to buy soil for your garden, think again, you could take your sustainability one step further.

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